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| Acting is a lot like new clothes just purchased. The more you wear them, the more comfortable they get. Such is the case with a living, breathing organism such as a play. Hamlet, Polarity Ensemble Theatre’s rock-driven production, goes into its final four shows this weekend. In talking with some the actors in Hamlet, opinions differ on some details, but one aspect remains constant: new moments are found on a nightly basis. Such in the evolution of a play, especially a Shakespearean play with an emphasis on language. “I have a fantastic time doing the show every night,” said Mason Hill, aka Hamlet. “I think the show is ten times better than when we opened. I think it’s tighter. The journey and through-line is pretty clear.” In finding all these new moments, Mason said it’s going to be bittersweet to end this weekend. “I’d like to do this for a couple more weeks,” he said. “I’m not ready to let this go. I’m not gonna feel it’s ready to be over yet.” "Each time I play Claudius, it becomes more vibrant and alive for me," Richard Engling said. "I work a lot with Laura and Matt (Gertrude and Laertes) in my scenes, and they are so immediate in what they do on stage, it's like living Claudius' life each time. Each performance creates more history for him, and I can move ever more completely into his skin." Once a show opens, it lends time for examining whether or not the material rehearsed has retained its fire on stage. Michael Sherwin, playing the Ghost, feels the process has been successful. “Just the fact that it has proven in practice what we’ve worked on in theory,” he said. Alex Reimers, playing Rosencrantz, shed a little light on his character’s evolution. “I found Rosencrantz in more aggressive. He’s standing up,” Alex said. “Instead of trying to understand the whole picture, he’s trying to figure out what to do in the next moment.” Alex also echoed Mason’s sentiments of discovering cool, new things. “Things become more and more apparent as you relax into any role,” he said. “The clarity of moments become sharper.” Charley Jordan, playing Polonius, said he’d love to extend the run for a bit. “We could do this another two months and I could still find new things,” he said. While the suit you bought might be a bit flashy, give it a couple weeks and you’ll grow right into in. Such is the case with this version of Hamlet. |
Having seen Hamlet on opening night and again last week, professional Irishman, poet, author and DePaul University professor Liam Heneghan shared these thoughts with us: "The remarkable thing about Polarity’s presentation of Hamlet is that the show has intensified over its short run. Hamlet’s ambivalence about his task, his procrastination in the face of his mounting certainty, has been perfectly played by Mason Hill since opening night. But the intensity that Hill brings to Hamlet’s ineffectual fury, a fury that erupts into a displaced violence against all in the court of Elsinore, has coaxed an interesting resistance from the other cast members. "Though the performances remain marvels of subtlety, the magnetic charge between all the players has increased after more than a week into the run. The players step in to one another, livid eyes no more than inches apart; the anguish of Ophelia and Gertrude in response to Hamlet’s unseemly violence is almost heartbreaking to behold; even the jocular exchanges between Hamlet and Polonius have an edgier quality, in some scenes almost affectionate, in others menacing. "Claudius, played earlier in the run as a carnal monster lashing about in search of a solution to his problems with his fanatical son-in-law, is now the more resourceful and controlled king, destined we know to die, but not likely to go without deploying carefully planned mischief. "The persuasive music which appealed as a pleasing and successful experiment on opening night now seems inseparable from the unfolding of the tragedy. When the tragedy inexorably reaches its bloody conclusion, the bodies on the floor are now those of king, queen, and our own ill-fated brothers." And more from the actors...
Laura Sturm, playing Gertrude, had this to say: "I love how after you've got a couple of weeks of performances under your belt things deepen and settle, and you start to find nuances in the relationships onstage."For myself, I have particularly found that Gertrude's relationship with Ophelia has shifted. Although Gertrude is jealous of Hamlet's attentions to her, I (as Gertrude) have been starting to have more empathy for her. She is a pawn in Claudius and Polonius's ridiculous plots. This helps me grieve for her when she falls into madness, and then death. This shift is a result of the moments that Abby and I have on stage together, which have altered over the run, as we work to keep it fresh in the moment. These new discoveries make it exciting for me every night." |
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Polarity Ensemble Theatre |